president obama is expected to be one of them. reporting live from washington, i'm steve handelsman. back to you. >> thank you. our coverage continues this evening. shomari stone rushed to the south african embassy this afternoon and he joins us live from there. shoma shomari? >> reporter: good evening, we are on massachusetts avenue and drivers are coming by, honking their horns, some putting up their fist paying tribute to nelson mandela. there is a fence here. why? the embassy is under construction. you look behind me and you can see this ten foot statue paying tribute to nelson mandela. it was unveiled two months ago. his fist raised in a power salute. it's in northwest d.c. activists staged sit ins and protests and spurred the u.s. to pose sanctions. let's roll video of mr. mandela. he was africa's former president who helped break the country system of racial discrimination. he died this evening, age 95. south african president jacob zuma announced the death at a somber news conference. people are coming here to the south af